Slight Increase In Budget Of Prosecutor Is Considered

By RONALD SMOTHERS

Published: July 1, 1999

NEWARK, June 30—
The president of the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders said today that the nine-member body would consider a modest increase in the County Prosecutor's budget to temporarily prevent the layoff of more than 50 people.

The board president, Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr., said the Freeholders made that decision after meeting with the monitor who was appointed early this week by Attorney General John J. Farmer as part of an audit and investigation of charges of extravagant spending. The monitor was given power to supersede Essex County Prosecutor Patricia A. Hurt on all budget and staffing matters.

According to Mr. DiVincenzo, the monitor, Donald C. Campolo, an assistant Attorney General, told board members that the Essex prosecutor's office would be ''devastated'' if he was forced to lay off people just as he was beginning his supervision and completing the audit. The layoffs would be required, Mr. Campolo told the board, in order to remain within the $22 million spending limit in the budget introduced on Tuesday by the Freeholders.

Mr. DiVincenzo said that Mr. Campolo had asked them to provide $300,000 to $400,000 to allow him to maintain current staffing of 419 until the end of September.

While Mr. Campolo's plea echoed that of Ms. Hurt last month -- that she would have to lay off 52 people and not fill 41 vacancies if her budget was not increased to $29 million -- the Freeholders' positive response to his request for temporary relief was not intended as an endorsement of Ms. Hurt's position, Mr. DiVincenzo said. The Democratic-controlled board, he said, felt caught in the middle of a budget dispute between Ms. Hurt, a Republican, and County Executive James W. Treffinger, also a Republican and former mentor to Ms. Hurt, who helped initiate the state audit when he accused her of extravagant spending two months ago.

''This has nothing to do with Pat Hurt,'' Mr. DiVincenzo said. ''It has to do with the office. Campolo told us that he couldn't run the office without this until he had more time to evaluate things, and we said we were willing to consider it.'' Mr. Campolo did not return calls for comment today.

The Freeholders have themselves joined the chorus of those demanding an audit and investigation of Ms. Hurt's office, pointing to spending on such things as a $120 leather wastebasket and a $250,000 mobile headquarters. Ms. Hurt's office is also the subject of several state and Federal investigations into her office's handling of some recent cases, including the investigation into the fatal shooting of an Orange policewoman.

Mr. DiVincenzo said that the board expected to received a specific proposal from Mr. Campolo in time for a July 21 hearing at which the budget could be finally voted on.